When Gmail first came out, it was exciting to use an “Ajax” style online email client that was so fast and responsive. By comparison, Hotmail ran like a dog, having to download the full page with every request.
But over the past year, Gmail has become agonizingly slow for me. The reason: the JavaScript processing would lock up my entire web browser for 5-10 seconds at a time! When loading Gmail, my web browser eats up 100% of the available CPU. I desperately wanted a better way to access my email.
To my delight, I tried the little “HTML” link at the bottom of the Gmail screen, and was surprised by the lightning-fast page updates. The HTML-only version of Gmail uses no JavaScript and runs fantastically fast by comparison!
You can bookmark this link to access your Gmail in HTML-only mode:
https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html&zy=f
Note, however, you’ll miss some JavaScript features, such as the pop-up address list when composing email messages. So you might want to switch back to “molasses-mode” when you need those features. Otherwise, juice it up! Enjoy the speed of HTML-only.
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